Ithaca Outsources Campus-Wide Wi-FiUniversity Business – October 2014
Ithaca College today announced it has selected Apogee, higher education’s leading network provider, to deliver turn-key design and deployment of an advanced and comprehensive campus-wide wireless network to better serve its students, faculty and staff. Apogee, already Ithaca’s trusted ResNet partner for the school’s residence halls, has begun Wi-Fi deployment to the rest of campus, including 29 academic and administrative buildings.Read more

Buffalo State Outsources ResNetCampus Technology – October 2014
Multiple institutions that are part of the State University of New York System are choosing to outsource the build out of wireless connectivity in their residence dorms. SUNY Buffalo State, with nearly 11,000 students, just announced that it would be working with Apogee, a company that specifically manages campus residential networks.Read more

Apogee appoints video veepRapidTVNews – September 2014
Education specialist Apogee has appointed Mike Jones as the company’s vice president of video solutions. Jones will lead strategy, sales, marketing and operations for Apogee’s video division.

He will also oversee all programming, including IPTV, and lead a team of higher-education specialists to deliver video content and services to Apogee’s nationwide footprint of college and university clients.Read more

U Alabama Birmingham Delivers 250 Mbps Broadband to ResidentsCampus Technology – August 2014
The University of Alabama at Birmingham has drastically increased the speed of its on-campus residential network, with an upgrade that has brought 250 Mbps connections to each resident in all five of its residence halls.

That 250 Mbps speed — which is actually just the base speed, since residents can opt to purchase more bandwidth — is about 24 times the estimated average speed of 10.5 Mbps per household in the United States.Read more

ResNet Provider Apogee Reports Mobile Devices Connected on College Campuses TripleMobility TechZone – March 2014
Apogee, the largest provider of on-campus residential networks (ResNet) for colleges and universities, has reported that the usage of Wi-Fi connected devices on campuses has been growing. Their report is based upon a comparison of their network demands between 2012 and 2013. According to the report, the number of devices connected to their networks has almost tripled since last year, and this number is continuing to grow.

According to a 2013 survey conducted by CourseSmart, 68 percent of college students use three or more digital devices each day, and 47 percent of students check those devices every 10 minutes. Laptops are still the most common digital devices used on campus, but many students now also use smartphones and tablets. Students in residence halls may also have devices such as desktop computers, wireless printers, iPods, gaming systems, e-readers, and smart TVs connected to the network.

Apogee, the nation’s largest provider of managed residential network (ResNet) services to higher education, today announced that it has been selected to manage the growing residential network (ResNet) demands of Midwestern State University, Huntington University, Navarro College, Slippery Rock University, and the University of Nebraska Omaha. Apogee has partnered with these institutions to provide some or all of the following services – wired and wireless internet connectivity, cable television, and Voice over IP (VoiP) – to their on-campus residence halls.

A small private college in Schenectady, NY has hired a company that specializes in residential network services to upgrade and manage its student housing network. Union College, which has about 2,100 students, contracted with Apogee to fill out the wireless network in its residential halls. Over the winter break, the service provider, accompanied by campus personnel, moved through 20 dorms, fraternities, and sororities along with 31 campus houses, to install wireless equipment.

“Apogee has been a great partner throughout the whole process, from decision-making to funding to planning and implementation,” said CIO Ellen Borkowski “We were very pleased with how smoothly and quickly the implementation was completed.”

“After careful consideration of how we could support residents more efficiently while still providing for the daily management of the student ResNet, we decided to outsource the ResNet to Apogee, an Austin-based provider. Effective August 2010, we utilized this additional network support to expand our wireless infrastructure, providing full coverage to six existing residence halls and four apartment communities. With a new residence hall and apartments opening this month, Apogee is now providing ResNet services to more than 3,000 campus residents. Students living on campus demand ever-increasing levels of network bandwidth, coverage, and services. When tackling a residential networking overhaul, consider these best practices that we learned as we overhauled the network.”

“Like many higher education institutions, University of the Incarnate Word (UIW) has grappled with seismic changes in technology, an uncertain economic climate for graduating students, and the pressing need to do more with IT. UIW’s vision for IT is to provide a reliable technology infrastructure experience for its users while advancing the university’s mission through technological planning, innovation, and leadership. By capitalizing on technological trends such as virtualization, mobile applications, and outsourcing to meet its goal of improving and expanding IT services, the university’s IT department is helping to prepare the school to meet present and future user demands.”

“Mobile usage of the network has grown rapidly on university campuses since the introduction of the Apple iPhone and Android phones. For IT decision makers already challenged to keep up with skyrocketing bandwidth and mobility demands, the latest trend in a seemingly endless series of “game- changers” may not seem like a welcome development. With a strong network in place, however, the convergence of cellular and VoIP can bring welcome amenities to students frustrated by poor service or restrictive minute allotments.”

“Several years ago, it was common for IT department staff at Birmingham-Southern College (BSC) to say that they were being held hostage by the student residential network. Jesse McKneely, director of infrastructure and project management, IT, Birmingham-Southern College said, ‘The memories of camping out in an office filled with virus-plagued student computers, trouble-shooting outdated network equipment, and the angry voices of our students are still fresh in my mind.’ But today BSC has an advanced ResNet solution that has led other schools and local businesses to seek out the IT department’s expertise on network design and security.”

“There are so many things you can look at today that are on the positive side,” said C. Dan Smith, chairman of the UNT Board of Regents. “This is just one of them. They are piling up.” Chuck Brady, Apogee’s founder and CEO, said that company officials could see those positives, which was why they decided to enter into one of the more unique naming rights deals for a college venue in the country. “We look at the challenges higher education is facing and see North Texas as a leader,” Brady said. “This stadium puts North Texas on the map and we get to come along for the ride.”

The UNT athletic department was prepared to scour the country to find a company willing to pay millions of dollars for naming rights to the school’s new 30,850-seat football stadium. In the end, a call to a partner it already knew well paid off in the form of a 20-year, $20 million deal with Apogee — one that school officials say will dramatically affect the entire athletic department. The new facility was officially christened Apogee Stadium on Friday. “With the financial support we are getting from Apogee, we will explode in all sports,” said C. Dan Smith, president of the UNT board of regents.

If you happen to channel-surf into a University of North Texas football game this fall, you’ll likely catch the name of the Mean Green’s brand-new field: Apogee Stadium. But Apogee, the Austin-based information technology company that runs UNT’s student residential network, isn’t looking to cash in on that kind of exposure. “It’s certainly part of the mix, but I don’t really expect our prospective clients to be watching a [Mean Green] football game,” said Chuck Brady, Apogee’s CEO. Brady views UNT, with its proximity to Dallas/Fort Worth Airport, as an ideal platform to show off his company’s success in running the ResNet since 2007. Apogee can easily bring prospects into the university for a visit, Brady said. “Our market is higher education,” he said. “UNT is a very large showcase for us.”

For several years, the information resources division of the University of Texas of the Permian Basin (UTPB) relied on internal staff and resources to meet students’ residential networking needs. No matter how long and hard we worked, though, we still felt like we were scrambling to catch up. Facing an unprecedented acceleration in the demand for bandwidth and mobility, UTPB began to fundamentally rethink the way they handled ResNet management.

“Managed residential networking, while a relatively new trend, is capturing the attention and fascination of an increasing number of administrators as they consider ways to run student housing networks that have the potential to work better and save money.”

“Technological advancements in recent years have brought about an unprecedented blizzard of new mobile devices such as notebooks, tablet PCs, smart phones and gaming consoles in the marketplace. Like many students across the country, the students of Centenary College of Louisiana are bringing more devices to school. They have come to expect seamless wireless connectivity not just in the classrooms but also in the residence halls.”

“The iTunes generation is used to buying music, watching television, and playing video games on screens perched in their laps, not going to record stores, student lounges, or mall arcades. Getting all of that information from faraway servers to laptop computers places an enormous burden on campus networking resources and IT departments, many of which are underfunded and understaffed, yet are expected to meet students’ expectations of ever quicker access to entertainment.”